Search form

SIC's Transformative Research: Rotterdam, 5 April

Share

In the context of the European Network project Social Innovation Community, DRIFTand Het begint met Taaljoined forces and invite you to explore discuss, critically evaluate and learn from innovative practices to include refugees in education and the job market in the Netherlands. As a significant number of newcomers are youngsters, education provides a potential pathway towards inclusion in host societies and their labour market. Knowledge about the innovative formats and ways for inclusion of newcomers in education is however limited.

WHO: Are you working as social entrepreneur, social innovator, policy maker or researcher on participation of newcomers in education or the labour market? Do you aim for societal impact and/or systemic change? And would you like to share your experiences, learn from others and increase not only your network but potentially the impact of your work? Then we invite you to apply for this transformative research and practice session.

WHY: With the arrival of a new group of refugees since 2015 (including many young newcomers from Syria and Eritrea) the needs of integration have changed. An underexposed group of newcomers are youngsters in the age category of 18-25 years old who are not automatically finding their way to education or a job. As limited research has been done on the inclusion of newcomers in education we would like to take this opportunity to showcase and evaluate socially innovative practices that are responding to this need. Socially innovative practices aim to change social relations between different actors, transcend disciplines and take up tasks in the grey zones of where responsibilities begin and end. Considering that migrant inclusion is an issue too big to be solved by one actor alone, this session provides a collective learning opportunity for actors from local governments and administrations, civil society, research and business.

WHAT: In an interactive setting, we explore experiences with and best practices of including refugee youngsters in education and jobs. The session focuses on learning from initiatives – the opportunities they gauge, the threats they face as well as the institutions they challenge – and reflecting on the broader context they are embedded in. We will discuss and critically evaluate how we, as practitioners, policy makers and researchers, can and already do contribute to the development and implementation of such educative formats, what we can learn and need from each other, as well as how we can strengthen each other’s practices. In particular we will focus on how research and practice/policy can better interact to increase their impacts.